


Stormy Skies

by EnidZsasz



Category: Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars
Genre: F/M, Jedi Ben, Reylo - Freeform, rey/ben solo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-27 10:37:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15683718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnidZsasz/pseuds/EnidZsasz
Summary: Luke sensed a young Jedi on a desert planet much like Tatotine, and brings her to the Jedi academy. The unruly child Rey never gives up on fights even outnumbered, and despite being a thorn in his side Ben takes her on as a pupil as Luke asks him to do.





	1. Chapter 1

Ben would very much rather not be here, but here he is trying to listen to his uncle while a little girl screamed and thrashed trying to pull her arm away from Luke who was just barely keeping her contained. Ben grit his teeth together as Luke tried to calm her, she was truly hysterical. "Shut up or I'll smack you." Ben bit to her, Luke stiffened, and for a few seconds, the girl continues, looks to him with wide eyes, and actually stops. She stops completely and that kind of behavior shakes him. Luke grimaced, but it wasn't as though his shins couldn't use the break. Luke drops her arm, and she's shaking, still sobbing. 

"Rey, its okay." Luke tried to soothe, she kicked him once more in the shins and fled. Right off into the night. "I should not have let her go." Luke said to himself, and looked to Ben. Something awful twisted in his gut, something he knew without being told. "Will you help me look for her?" Luke asked him, there was a beat as Luke finally decided to break the silence. "She was a slave." 

"Sure." Ben said and stomped of to the girl. Luke had to run to catch up, scanning around the area for a tiny girl. Ben could sense her, she was hiding. Someplace small, and smelled like food, her stomach ached completely sick with hunger but she stayed where she was. She didn't even TRY to get food, and a sort of memory of pain made him flinch. "She's in the kitchens." Ben said simply, and swerved away. He didn't know why Luke wanted him to take on a pupil, a trainee all on his own, not even when he was barely even trained. Let alone a formal Jedi. 

"Ben, you shouldn't hurt her." Luke told him unnecessarily. "BE NICE, she needs NICE." Rey flinched when the two men had found her, but drew further back under the shelves of plates. She was so small she fit in the barely four inches of space between the lowest shelf and floor. She felt safe, but now felt trapped, Luke put a hand on his shoulder. "TRY, if you need help I'm here." he told Ben, and left. Without any other word, without telling him what do to. Ben didn't hide a frown and pulled out a chair and sat down with enough force to rock the chair back into the long table behind him. 

"COME OUT NOW." Ben snapped at the little girl. She shook and crept out sniffing face red with ugly tear tracks down her face she was unruly. She could be barely ten, or younger then that. He sighed. "My name is Ben. What is yours?" he asked. She mumbled something to quiet to hear. "WHAT?" he said with more force then nessacary, she flinched again. 

"Rey." She said quickly and clearly. Ben frowned at himself and again looked over the child, she wanted to run again, but she felt like she was cornered and couldn't run. Couldn't ever get away, and the fact she thought he would very well hurt her was sickening. 

"I'm not going to hit you. Have you calmed down?" he asked her carefully. She just barely nods. Ben stands, and she cringes away, he doesn't even try to go near her, and instead grabs a bowl of small delicate fruits and puts the bowl on the ground in front of her. "Eat, you'll like them their-" Rey just devours them. She doesn't need to be told twice to eat, and he hates how his mind goes to how easily a child like this could be manipulated by the vile- 

"OH Look, its the ugly prince." Said a sharp biting voice. Rey stalls, face stained now with purple juices from the fruits. "ANd look, the prince has a rat." The young male twi'lek before the two was very much a nobel. Luke didn't like him all that much, considering this was just a prize for the family. It however implanted an ALLY in his family to the new burgeoning rebulic. Ben wants nothing more to break his jaw, but looks away uninterested, but Rey stands up bristling. "Oh look, the rat has-" He didn't get to finish, Rey is on him. Like a baby wookie she is all claws and bites and quickly bloodies his nose, bites him three times, and leaves a rain of hot and bleeding scratch marks down his arms. With a look of shock he pushes himself up, Rey kicks at Ben holding her up off the ground by her tunic. She is currently letting out a unending stream of swears. Ben blinks at that, and smiles nearly chuckling as the twi'lek male blanches as he realizes she has marred him. 

"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" He demands to Rey. Ben sets her down with a warning look to stay still. 

"A fucking stupid shit, who thinks he can take me." Rey says camly and now beeming in complete pride. She won this fight, as the twi'lek storms away to confused by her actions to feel outraged. Ben would probably have punched her. He scowls darkly at her and she smirks to him. She goes back to her food, and quickly finishes off the food, ignoring the very painful ache in her stomach which was currently unused to even the concept of dried fruit, let alone fresh. 

"Rey, you shouldn't attack people." Ben tried to scold her, but fell into a chuckle. She grinned up at him. 

"You wanted to break his jaw, I tried, I only got his nose!" she told him brightly. Ben blinked and shut himself off from the girl. She only blinked at him in confusion. 

"Rey... you FELT what I wanted to do?" he asked carefully. She shrugged. 

"Just a flash... a guess. He wasn't nice like you." Ben gave her a horrified look. If how he was was NICE then what did she think of mean? He blanched, and Rey awkwardly shifted in front of him. 

"Alright, come on, lets get you cleaned up. I can teach you to use a fresher at least." he told her. She nodded, and as he passed her she briefly reached out to him, then snatched her hand back, wiping it against her tunic. Ben doesn't comment on the motion, but slowly so she is aware of the movement bends down and offers his hand to her. "Its okay, you can hold my hand if you are scared." he finds himself telling her. 

"I'm not scared!" She huffs. Ben smiles at her, it feel at least genuine. "I... I want to go home. MY parents... they are gonna come back for me." she told him, but took his hand. 

"Well, have you ever LOOKED for them?" he asks in return. She gives him a look. 

"I'm... not strong...." she tried to explain. 

"You took on a twi'lek male almost three times your size." he told her. "That is pretty strong. well actually its stupid. If he hit you back he'd be in the rights to defend himself." She grimaced as he guided her towards the fresher units. All small, all old military tech. Rey actually brightens when she sees them, and rushes in one. 

"I KNOW THESE ONES!" she waves Ben off, and with a bit of a frown he leaves her to her privacy. Even when the units themselves have a concealing fog that snaps onto the glass once the fresher is started. He realizes only when he hears wet slaps that Rey was still clothed, and from the repeated slaps, she is... cleaning her own clothes. In the most crude way possible, but she is... self sufficient. She shouldn't be this way if her family cared for her. Not that a child shouldn't do chores, but there was a sort of... Rey shouldn't NEED to do this. She's barely... Ben tried to think of her age. 

"Six." Luke supplied. Ben lept away from his master, who always seemed to pop up and scare him when he least wanted it. "Ten years younger then you." Ben doesn't look to Luke. He only frowns. "I heard she attacked Tri'scall." Luke told him. "Is that your way of teaching?" Luke asked. 

"NO! I was TRYING to feed her. But Tri'scall called her a rat." Ben tried to explain. He didn't mention the same aged boy's own baits. Luke knew them well enough. Tri'scall didn't hide the scorne of the title even in public. 

"Okay." Luke said simply, and started away. 

"AT LEAST TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Ben snapped, loudly. He heard Rey freeze. He quieted himself as Luke looked back to him. 

"Try to be patient?" Luke supplied. "I know its not one of your strong suits, but she needs more then just a little." Luke walked away from Ben, leaving him anger, but in a deflated way. Resigned, Ben waited for Rey to finish, she stepped out sodding wet and he had to usher to back in before the cleaning droid could roll in complaining about stupid children. He feared Rey might attack even bare metal with nothing but hands and feet. He quickly had her dried, using sonics which she completely froze for scared like a small prey animal. 

"I... I heard you yell." she tells him, as he holds her hand, nearly bent over going towards his Hut. Luke hadn't said anything about putting her with the other young ones. He hedged that maybe it was a good idea that she wasn't. He hadn't had the time to move the other bed from the hut out, or put it so that he could have another bed. At least it was privacy, for how little time it served. Rey brightened, letting go of his hand and lept ungainly onto his bed. He got the impression, and this time white hot anger washed over him from it, that she didn't even have a bed. Just a large scrap of cloth and sand. 

"Rey," he tried not to sound strangled. "That is my side." she blinks down, and eases her self down carefully, and stand there awkwardly. "Its okay, here." he sets the other bed out, turning out the covers, and 'gifitng' her one of his pillows. She holds it to her chest, eyes wide in pure abject wonder, the anger comes back and Ben motions her to stay as he stalks off to find Luke. HOW, just HOW could a child in the REPUBLIC, he stops himself. Jakku was in neutral space, but that doesn't stop his anger. How can slavery still exist? How can she have had so LITTLE? He's had far to much for his liking and yet she has had NOTHING. Something as small as a dirty old beat up pillow with its poly foam stuffing crumbled to bits was a LUXURY. It was a marveled luxury. Unthinkable to have only to want, want it just touch once. 

Luke was there waiting for him. "HOW... how can she be like that?" Ben demanded. Luke grimaced. 

"There is so much we have been trying to do Ben. People fall through the cracks. I barely felt her in fact. I doubt she's anything..." Luke drops off as he notices Ben is pacing. "Ben." Luke warns, and Ben frowns, and plops himself down and with a sigh tries to meditate. "Thank you." Luke tells him, but he ignores Luke. He instead looks for Jakku, he reaches out to the force, he needs to know exactly what that place is like. All he got from the girls mind, was a sandy place. A place of nothing but sand, and old black star destroyers sticking out like fire scotched trees. "BEN." Luke warned, but again Ben isn't listening. He looks, and finds something truly distasteful. A blubbery humanoid with two others gloating about how much money he made on a useless brat. "BEN!" Luke shouted. 

"You, BOUGHT her." Ben states, he isn't angry. Ben is completely furious, no wonder she hated Luke. He bought her, dragged her away from all that she knew Ben stood and stalked away from Luke ignoring everything he could say. When he got back to his hut she hadn't moved, though he got the impression she had snuck around the room a bit. He deflated into a very small cubby with a desk and chair, and tried to calm himself. 

"Can... can I got home?" she asked him. That was all that he needed for his anger to just vanish, he turned to her and frowned. Anger was gone, and it just left a sad empathy for the child. 

"What are your parent's like?" he asked her and pulled out his calligraphy set. While he wasn't exactly in the mood to copy the extremely old text he had projected on a small holo, he needed the calming sense of pen strokes. Luke didn't exactly see the, _function_ , in copying the text down onto the same kind of animal skin parchment, but Ben thought maybe there was a reason for it. It was much more nonsense however, all about water flows, and rain and all such water things. Rey was silent as she watched him. 

"What... what are you doing?" she asked bravely. Ben frowned. 

"Writing." she stared at his hand as the pen moved, he waved her closer with the other and slowly she crept up and watched him closely. "Do you know how to write?" he asked her, and squinted over a particularly damaged piece, and just what could the symbols could be. This jedi used a set of herioglyphics, and while it was translatable, some of them were particularly close to each other. Ben copied what he thought it could be down, and kept going. 

"Not, like that. HOW are you doing that?" she watched as he dotted the ink into the pen, careful not to have excess on the pen, and kept going. It was relaxing, and he found that all the negative emotions he had were finally ebbing away and down into him. 

"Its... old style writing. Not even MY dad knows how to do it. He can barely sign his name on contracts." Ben told her and smirked towards her. She ginned, and just watched him in fascination. "Here." Ben pulled out a small drawer, and handed her a small tablet. "that has a program on it to teach you to write... like this." he held it out to her, and for a moment she hesitated, but took it and held it close to her chest. "I can get another tablet, besides you need one, that's my old one." She tightened her grip on the thing. 

"What... what are you writing?" she asked him. 

"I'm copying an old Jedi text." he stated. She blinked at him in confusion. "Jedi? Don't you know where you are?" she shook her head. "Kriffing hell Luke." she grinned at his swearing. "You are at the Jedi academy. You are here to become a Jedi." she still was confused. Ben stilled, and carefully set the pen down turning towards her. "You... don't know anything about the Jedi?" 

"Some kind of... person?" she hazarded. "Alien species?" she asked when he remained silent. 

"No... its... a KIND of person. Like a soldier, trader, smuggler or..." he paused. "Scavenger." She nodded, still not exactly comprehending. 

"My dad was a soldier." she told him. "My mom too." Ben nodded and tried an encouraging smile. "They had old black uniforms when they had to do laundry." 

"Ah... makes sense." he mumbled and she was still confused. "Anything else you want to tell me?" he asked carefully, and turned back to his writing. 

"They.... had all these bottles sometimes. They'd get mean, and not... give me food." Pen's pen broke, as a consequence of that it almost completely ruined the parchment before him. He didn't think he could be angrier, he gathered the two pieces and set them aside and pulled out his spare and continued the work. "Was... that bad? They... didn't speak well with the bottles....moved funny..." Ben scratched out the spilled ink before it could ruin all his work. 

"Yes it was very very bad." Ben told her bluntly. She flinched, and went back to her bed and set the tablet down on her lap. "Its okay though. I'm sure they didn't think it would hurt you." he tried to sound calm and was surprised that he didn't just grab her, take her back to that dirt ball and find her family. Once there... he pressed his lips together, and discarded the thought. If Luke ever got the inkling that he would even think to... Ben continued the work watching Rey pull up the program, taking the small pen embedded in the tablet and started to learn how to write. Eventually she nodded over it, and he quickly put her to bed, setting the tablet on a small table near her. He set the parchment to dry, and turned out for the night himself. 

* * *

 

Ben grinned down at the two begging forms, they were making a plea for mercy, but he wasn't anything as such. They didn't deserve it, they NEVER deserved it. To think they would sell their own flesh and blood for LIQUOR? Ben killed them. He didn't just kill them, he cut their arms off, and when they writhed in pain, did he only think to cut their heads off silencing the cries. It felt like the right thing to do, killing them. He wasn't until he shuddered at the deaths he felt in the force did he note the familiar resemblance to Rey. But he didn't have much time to dwell, and instead stalked to the blubbery humanoid that was held before him. Figures in black held him to his knees, the creature didn't beg. It knew what as coming for him, Ben motioned for someone to come out, and Rey, did so. She was older, hair still back in those three buns. 

She looked disappointed in him, but he put the lightsaber in her hands, and pointed to Unkar Plutt. He didn't know how he knew the name, but he knew the creature, and only having Rey for two years tormented the little girl like the worst criminal scum out there. Electro whips were forbidden to use on prisoners let alone ANIMALS. He used them on her, Ben... knew this. Rey shook a little, but he put a steadying hand on her shoulder and smiled to her. With a deep breath, she lit the red saber up and the figures stepped back to allow the youngest of them to fall on the humanoid with a fury of blows. Ben could only feel pride that she didn't give no quarter, she made Unkar suffer, much more then he made her family suffer. Dispatching him, Rey let the saber fall silent and still, and he smiled down at her. Though he spoke before now he could actually here his own voice. "Rey, you are now a knight of Ren." he told her, her face brightened she smiled at him. 

"Thank you, Ky-" Ben was jolted awake as his morning alarm buzzed into the room. He heard a shuffle, Rey lept back into the bed and quickly, he just got the tinest hint of movement as he opened his eyes, he sat up, and silenced the alarm. Nothing was out of place, he learned, but there were signs that Rey had explored the room, she didn't go outside, but she had likely inventoried everything in the room. He smirked to her whatever dream he had was forgotten as he stretched and moved outside. Rey sat up carefully, and slowly followed him outside. The skies were gray and overcast, the rumble of distant lightning showed it was going to rain soon. 

"Alright..." Ben began to Rey, she marveled up at the skies and the world before her. While most of the area around the temple was bare rock, there were a few trees swaying in the wind. Distant stands of them moved to the growing storm, bushes were actually in abundance, they all held tiny black berries. Luke liked to have them around so that the kids could go and have 'snacks' at any moment. Or pull the berries out to make desserts. Rey didn't move and Ben let her have her moment for a few moments. "Come on, we have to get you a uniform." he told her. She shifted, and nodded following him. Curious stares followed them, and she shifted close to him, almost tripping over her feet to stay close to him as the other students stopped to examine her and Ben. 

He didn't pay much mind to the quick whispers that roiling through the groups of young and older trainees, he just pulled her to a room filled with various sizes and all kinds of uniforms. From a simple sash for species like Wookies who needn't wear clothes, to full on suits for species that required special treatment for not being able to breath in oxygen air. Ben quickly went to the human uniforms and pulled out several likely sizes, holding them to Rey who stayed still without needing to be told. She cast a glance to a few too noisey people who were peeking into the room, and looked back to him. "Okay, these should do." he told her setting at least five aside. The droid manning the area woke, and looked at Ben to Rey and the clothes. 

"Can... you please take them to my... hut?" he asked the droid carefully. Tal-99A gave him a look optics shining a bit brightly. "Please they are for her." Ben motioned to Rey, who was currently frowing over the droid as it moved away from the small counter it was by. 

"This is the new youngling?" the droid asked. Ben sighed, as the droid bent down before Rey examining the little girl. "Hello youngling, I am Tal-99A. The others call me Tala, so you may call me a such. I am a tailor droid, over 200 years old, found in Coricant and acitivated to serve the new acadmey." Ben rolled his eyes as Tala explained herself. The droid was programmed with a very gently matronly voice, Rey shuffled behind Ben. "Ah, do I scare you?" Tala stood, and shifted, upper body rotating to gather the clothes. "Boots are in order, keep that in mind Young Master." the droid told Ben. Ben flinched but nodded in thanks at the reminder. 

"Boots?" Rey questioned once alone. She held up her shoes, nothing more really then cloth, and plastic tarps. Ben ground his teeth together for a moment, but then grinned and ushered her into a even smaller area. Here there were boots of all sizes and kinds as well. These were more complicated, Ben sat her down and measured her feet, grabbing a set of soft boots in her size and one a bit bigger. She held them in her lap staring at him and started shaking. 

"What's wrong?" Ben asked, a moment before she started sobbing. He reached out towards her and tried not to feel angry. She had the thought she was dead, that Unkar, the name roiled anger into him, Unkar had killed her. That she was in heaven, because this had to be heaven because she didn't hurt, there was so many things, and people were actually nice. Ben crouched down beside her and pulled her into a hug as she sobbed. He wanted to go out and kill Unkar, kill every last person on that planet and in the galaxy that made her life so horrible that even little kindnesses seemed like miracles. 

It took a long time for her to recover, her face red and ugly, and his own clothes were stained from her tears, but it was really worth the small comfort he could give her. "Its okay. Here." he pinched himself. "the dead don't feel pain." he told her. She pinched herself, and grinned up at him. "It will be okay, now put those boots on, we'll drop by the hut to drop off the others, and then I'll leave you to get breakfast while I get ready for the day." She nodded, and he quickly had her in front of the milling students, Tri'scall completely fled the area when Rey entered light blue face bruised and swollen. 

She froze in front of all the people, but he pushed her forwards. "they won't hurt you, they won't take your food." he told her, leaving her to get her food, to get clean for the day. He blinked when he went back to his hut, Rey was there with two trays of food, carefully eating the food on the floor keeping all the crumbs falling onto the tray. He decided not to say anything, and instead brushed back his hair, combing the still slightly damp locks into some sort of order. 

"I... I do..don..." Rey tried Ben shook his head. 

"Its okay, you don't have to tell me." he replied. She swallowed heavily, and stood holding the other tray out to him. "Ah... I...." he took the tray and stared down at the food. He rarely ate breakfast, often times the dreams he had left him unable to eat. He tried to eat at least something, she had piled on the food, various things like meats, dairies, eggs, fruits, at least four different rolls. He didn't know exactly where she put it, but then again he didn't think she actually put that much on her tray. He frowned at his tray and then at Rey. He got the impression that she thought he was really thin and needed to be fed like some baby animal. "Thank you." he decided and ate despite the protest his stomach made. 

Ben was at least almost sure that she was going to be... interesting... to say the least in the coming days, weeks, and months as he trained her. He was stalled on what to try first, and hit on something that would probably ease her around the other students. "Do... you want to learn how to fight?" She looked up at him. "Really fight?" He added, she grinned up at him. 

"YES!" she said quickly. 

"If I do you can't go around breaking peoples noses and jaws." he warned. She scowled at him. "I mean it... unless they attack you first." she looked at him in displeasure, but then nodded with a quickly hidden smirk. "And, NO swearing." 

"WHAT? WHY the KRIFF not?" she responded. 

"Because I said so." he told her. she folded her arms in front of her with a scoff. "Come on." he picked up his tray, and realized over half it was gone, when had that happened? It didn't much matter as he guided her back to the dinning area, and disposed of the trays, and food, with her confused look. "It gets recycled to feed plants." Ben told her quickly. "So its not wasted utterly." she nodded accepting the information. He ushered her towards the practice grounds, receiving a frown from Luke as he passed Rey a staff. Ben ignored his master, if Luke didn't LIKE the way he was teaching, then he can come and teach her himself. Rey had little experience using anything other then her hands, but actually seemed naturally inclined to the staff as he guided her to a few steps and strikes. She beamed with pride when he praised her, and he could feel Luke, still frowning at his back, but the old man didn't do anything. When she began to flag, he guided her out to learn how to meditate, that at least pleased Luke. 

Ben could imagine she would have little patience for meditation if he didn't get her exhausted however, though she had little aptitude for meditation. Though she quickly got up on combat, meditation was hard won and she barely relaxed by the time Ben thought it was finally time, due to the cue for lunch, to end it. "WHY do I need to relax?" she asked crossly as he went with her into the dinning area. She stayed close to him holding onto the hem of his robe. 

"Because, you need to relax to feel the force. I think... Luke might be the best one to show you it first." He told her. She just accepted this, though confused, Ben hardly if ever ate with the others, taking his, and Rey's tray outside to wear a few others were. Luke descended on him here, in fact, Rey lept up, meal forgotten as she hid behind Ben's back. 

"Rey, I'm not going to hurt you." Luke tried, but Rey didn't move. Luke looked to Ben with a bit of a frown. "Rey, its okay, come out." Luke tried, Rey buried her face into Ben's back. Ben froze at the memory she was dealing with right now and then started shaking. 

"LUKE. GO AWAY." Ben told him, Luke straightened. Ben could feel him extend towards her, and recoiled. 

"I didn't...Kriff." Luke never swore, it made everyone look to her. Rey had watched, as another child, piled with sweets and very very nice words away. They never found them again, but Rey, Rey knew what happened. She could sense the child's fear, and their pain and hurt through the force. Luke may not have thought she was much, but obviously when the force decided to connect, it didn't just trickle. It flooded. Ben blinked, it was as if that text he had been translating had come clear. 

_"It may be that one day those don't understand what this is. Water, flowing water. It comes in trickles, in comes in rain and storms. It floods, it eats away even steel. Those that endure it, can endure floods. Can endure trickles, can endure the crashes of the most severe storms. It is this that many do not know. It is that person, in which this happens. While the channels can be forced open, can be made into such storms, such floods, they quickly destroy. People write it as akin to fire, burning them out. But it is not as such. It is water, water boiling down into opened channels, and just like with the new channels it tears. It eats away until that person will crumble. Those that are simply strong, may even crumble. It is within our duty as jedi to help shore them up. With steel, with concrete, everything we have so that if they crumble, maybe they will have a foundation to build back up from. I have known those that have crumbled, have fallen, and then were called back. It seems odd to even say that I was one. Though, my foundations were built after I have crumbled, after I had been a part of the broken. My master is great at building however. It is through his kindness and acceptance, that I found peace. Found my place in this ocean of the force. I steadied and found that I did not have to force that power through me. I could just let it do its thing. Even the smallest, most tiniest push is sometimes the best. Instead of the raging torrent. Just as some plants need a torrent of water, or need just a tiny bit of water. Allow that water, allow the force to decide and use it. Because the force knows, just as water knows, that it must flow._

_Jedi master Ja'el."_

 


	2. A bit of Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey experiences her first rain storm, and her first purposeful connection to the force.

Luke tried to think on how to fix this sort of situation. He never had a child so scared of someone actually being kind, then again considering what she had been through and felt, it was no wonder she couldn't trust him. He did not want to be harsh with her, it left him with distaste that she didn't even consider to trust him. But Ben? Well maybe Ben was the best bet to get her acclimated into the larger galaxy, and into becoming a Jedi. He had thought letting Ben take on a personal trainee would help the boy stay calm, but it didn't work. Everything with the girl just made him more furious, made him go further towards that nigh inescapable hole of hate. Luke paused in his thoughts as Ben and the girl, trailing behind him like a little chick. She stared down at the ground and when they stopped kicked at a small rock. 

"I'm..." Luke tried but Ben shook his head and turned to Rey. 

"Its okay Rey, now, remember what I told you." Ben told her softly making Luke blink. Very slowly, Luke felt Rey reach out to him in the force. Luke was much to shocked to actually think to block the girl from examining him. He usually kept himself tightly shielded around students, it allowed them to explore the force and each other without having to have the awkwardness of a adult, and not just an adult but a HERO, sense them and their thoughts. But she 'looked' at him, and Luke got the short memory of just how Ben was able to calm her down.  

* * *

"Rey, Luke would NEVER hurt you." Ben told her as she buried her face deeper into his tunic. Luke had stalked off, and she was trying to calm herself down. 

"YOU... You don't know that!" she yelled muffled. 

"Yes, I do. Do you know HOW I do?" he questioned. She peeled a bit away from him and shook her head. "I reached out in the force to feel his intent." He said simply. Rey slowly sat back down in front of her food, but didn't touch anything. 

"I... I don't understand." She replied, Ben nodded. 

"How did you know I wanted to break Tri'scall's jaw?" he asked her. She shrugged. "Did you reach out to me? Not with your hands, but your feelings?" Ben frowned trying to find a better way of explaining. "Like a wireless communicator?" 

"I... I'm not sure." she said softly. 

"Try it with Luke, just reach out to him, not with any hands, but with... feelings I guess. It will work I promise." Ben told her. She scowled, but nodded. "Try it with me, I'll tell you if it worked." She looked up at him, and Ben waited as she closed her eyes. It took a long moment, but she reached out to him through the force and stalled when she just barely even got close drawing back quickly. "Well you almost got there, its okay." He put a hand on her shoulder and again she reached out to him, and examined him through the force. 

What she felt from Ben was closed off to Luke, tucked tightly away in her mind and Luke had to question just exactly WHAT she could feel from Ben. Ben was far more shielded most of the time, the one of only things that bled out was anger. Strong emotions like that bled out from that mental shield, leaving one like Luke to have to concentrate on his face and not the force to read him. Ben didn't hide or didn't know how to conceal his facial expressions unlike a good amount of people. 

Rey relaxed as she felt Luke, and felt his intent, and then drew back away. "I'm sorry for being... scared." She told Luke and he smiled down at her. 

"I understand Rey." Luke replied gently. 

"Don't you think YOU are the better teacher to show her the force?" Ben questioned quickly. Luke blinked to Ben. 

"Is that what you want to do Ben? She's your student." Luke countered quickly. Ben grit his teeth together. "If you want me to help her feel the force I will." 

"Ah... umm...." Rey mumbled. "C... can Ben teach me?" she asked both men. Ben turned to her. "I LIKE Ben." she stated. Luke looked to her and then back to Ben and smiled. Ben grimaced but sighed in defeat. 

"Ben..." Luke began, and put a hand on the young man's shoulder. "You are doing good." Ben blinked and almost actually smiled before repressing the expression. "Rey, don't let Ben intimidate you." Luke told the little girl. She frowned up at him, and Luke actually hit on WHY she quite liked Ben. It was like allying yourself with the biggest wookie in the prison as Han would say, or Chewie for that matter. She stayed with him because if she proved useful, and did what he said he could, and would protect her. It was a... not so good way of seeing things, but that could be eased out later. She just didn't know any other way of doing things. "Well, the offer still stands Ben. If you need help I'm always here." Luke told him, and despite the grimace of distaste nodded. "But well... maybe... let her be a kid?" Luke hazarded towards Ben before he left the young man blinking after her.

In a way, both of them were the same. Different sort of upbringings but the same sort of child. Ben had to grow up quickly, had to come to terms with everything fast. Whether it was the assassination attempts on Leia, Luke himself, or Han, or even a kidnapping attempt on the boy, Ben was pushed into being an adult. The upbringing with droids mainly didn't help much. Rey however, was forced into becoming self sufficient out of pure survival. If he had to compare it, it was like comparing a trained dog to a lone wolf. Luke couldn't say for sure which animal compared to which person. Ah, well, it wasn't too late for Ben to actually have FUN, something the boy seemed loathe to actually do. 

* * *

 

Ben's mind raced as he tried to think of a way to actually help Rey to feel the force for the first time. Really actually connecting to the living force, his first time doing so had scared his mother, not Luke. Luke had never been scared of him, but Han and Leia? His mothers fear burned the memory into him and still the memory burned him to this day. 

Ben had been ten, it was the day after the worst nightmare he had ever had. His mother had decided to send him to his uncle Luke body tense with worry, and Ben didn't understand why she was so scared. The room had been almost completely torn apart and Ben didn't understand what had happened, he thought it was a earthquake, it FELT like a earthquake. But he learned later that it had been him. He had reached out and destroyed the room. Luke had carefully took him aside, guts twisting with fear and worry about just WHAT he did wrong. "Its okay Ben." Luke told him and smiled to him. It did little to ease him, but Luke wasn't afraid of him, not like Leia, and most definitely not like Han. 

"I'm... I'm so sorry!" Ben tried but Luke guided him to sit down on a small platform. Ben shook a bit but listened to his uncle. 

"I... I want you to reach out." Ben complied and Luke gave him an amused look. Ben dropped his hand. "No, reach out with your feelings." Luke told him, Ben shifted uneasily. He didn't like reaching out, it left him feeling far to much from the people near him, but he closed his eyes and did as his uncle asked him to do. Ben encountered something completely different however, he felt almost like a great wall of something, and then there was something else. He reached out to it, and was overwhelmed by the force. He didn't know exactly what he felt, life, death, light and darkness, but he came to when there was a huge crack of stone below him. It snapped him back into himself and with a panicked look tried make his body work to run. 

But what stalled him was what he felt from Luke. It wasn't fear, it was pride. For the first time he felt someone other then his mother, feel pride at his actions. Luke wasn't scared of him, and that of all things made Ben relax. Finally relax, he wanted to sob, but he was far too controlled to do so. A prince doesn't cry. "Well, I think that maybe you do need more training." Luke told him. He looked up towards Leia, who wore and expression of worry. 

"He... He's that strong?" she asked softly. Ben shivered, he still could feel his mothers fear of him, but then it was cut off as Luke walked to her and spoke to quietly to be heard. Leia straightened and nodded to her twin, and turned to Ben. "I'm sorry Ben, I didn't know..." she tried and moved to sit down by him. He didn't flinch away from his mother as she gathered her into his arms, he wanted to flinch. But he felt nothing from her now and that was a blessing. "You... you are going to need to go with your uncle for a time." she told him. Now he flinched. 

"I, I don't WANT to." he snapped. "I want to learn to-" Leia pulled away and gave him a long stare. "Yes ma'am." he said quickly and she frowned. 

"Ben... you are a jedi." She told him quickly. The word brought a lot more confusing feelings to Ben then he could deal with. Mostly outright confusion as to HOW he could be this thing? He was a prince, he didn't need anything else to add to his person. The weight of the word settled heavily on him, and made him shift. 

"Well not a jedi YET." Luke replied, and Ben felt that sort of weight lift off him. "You've got a few years of training ahead of you." He smiled down to Ben. While that weight of title was back, it was much lighter and Ben could bare it. He didn't think he wanted to be this Jedi, Luke was absolutely almost like a myth. They expected Ben to be that near godly person? "Its alright Ben, I'm not really that much of a Hero." Luke eased, and Ben felt himself relax more. "Come on, lets get you to see the others." He held out his hand to Ben, and Ben took his uncles hand, and with a look to his mother expecting her to stop this, followed Luke out. Ben got the feeling that Leia was relieved, and quickly, repressed that feeling deep inside of him. He didn't know why, and only hoped his uncle didn't feel that, he didn't LIKE how easily his uncle knew how he felt. 

* * *

Rey flinched beside him and that is when finally the storm that had been moving in had unleashed rain down upon the school. Rey froze still and looked up, holding her hands out and catching rain drops in her tiny hands. Ben did want to run to shelter, like the screaming others but stayed by Rey. It was relaxing in a way watching her marvel at rain. She was speechless, mouth trying to work out some kind of words. He smoothed his hair back which was quickly plastered to his face, and head. Rey hair pulled back into three buns, didn't have to deal with unruly hair thankfully and she took a few steps out from near him then froze stepping back head down. "Go on." he told her and pushed her away from him. "Go jump in a puddle." she gave him a confused look. He sighed, and walked with her to a fairly sizable one. And nearly threw her into the small pool. Rey sputtered, pulling herself out of the water sputtering and angry. 

"YOU JERK!" she yelled at him and he smiled at her. She kicked water at him, which he adeptly dodged away from. Rey very sodden chased after him in very impotent fury. She tried to splash him every time she got near a puddle, and only ended up becoming more and more sodden. Ben could shield himself with the force from the rain and did so, he was very quickly dried as Rey panted after him. He finally edged into a empty meditation room, with Rey following dripping water everywhere. "You are still a jerk." she told him with a glare. 

"Yes, yes I am." he replied easily and laughed as she gave him a confused look before scowling at him. "I think... I think I should show you the force." Ben added carefully. She swallowed and shifted uneasily in confusion. "It will be okay, here sit down." she frowned. 

"More mediation?" she asked and he shook his head. She followed him to sit before him on a small pad. He took a steadying breath, stomach twisting a bit. His instinct was to shield her from his, but it had to be done. 

"Remember what I told you about reaching out?" he asked her she nodded. "Its the same principle. Only this time... try to reach out away from people. Towards... the planet. Towards the storm." he told her. Rey breathed out and closed her eyes, it wasn't quick, Rey tried at least four times, drawing back quickly from the storm as if it was a hot plate. Then actually reach out purposefully towards the force. She gasped in a breath, and shivered. He could feel her trying to let go desperately, but the force... it didn't exactly let one go quickly. It ran its full course through her, making the whole area shudder like an earthquake. Ben could feel the connection ripple outwards in the force, and it was actually something of a marvel. He didn't take much stock into his own strength, he didn't even have Luke to compare it to. But here, in this little girl before him? He felt matched, he felt almost like finally there was someone who wouldn't be scared of how quickly he outstripped the teachings. How quickly he could grasp the concepts of the force. Because he felt that she, just like he did could do the same. All it took was a little push to do so, and he would be that push. Just like he'd get stronger, so too would she. 

Rey almost fainted, and Ben caught her before she could hit the ground setting her down carefully so she could recover from the connection of the force. It left her slowly, in tickles at a time, but there was something else. Ben could feel a distant fear, but ignored it. It didn't much matter, if someone was scared of her it was their fault. She was a good kid, he knew she was a good kid. 

* * *

 

Luke felt the ripples out from Rey in the force, and it nearly floored him. Ben had floored him, and at the time he didn't have the thought to be scared. But now, he could not stop himself from being unsettled from this strength. Rey was strong as, if not stronger then Ben. It was disturbing, Luke read a lot of texts. Spoke to the few remaining holocrons and knew that there was little he could do himself to keep either under control should they loose themselves. One of the texts, written by Qui Gon Jinn himself, spoke of how some of those that were far more powerful in the force could and did loose themselves in it. That they would just burn themselves away into it and waste away in body until they died. Not even knowing their body was ebbing away into death even until they actually weakened and died. How could he himself pull either away from the force when the two overwhelmed him? 

The texts he had made little mention to a teacher weaker then the student. It seemed like masters would seek out similar strengths, or students LIKE them for personal students after the academy. Luke just didn't know what to do exactly, no matter how hard he trained, or how much he learned he always seemed to be a step behind of things before they could happen. He caught up that was for sure, but he didn't know exactly how to deal with Ben now, let alone Rey. He thought when he found her she was weak, he was wrong of course he knew that. But his gut told him she needed to go with Ben. That Ben would be distracted enough from pestering the old man for things that Luke just didn't know yet or was learning himself. He thought, a frail little girl, Ben would have to be gentle, however now? 

Luke did regret putting them together, but he did have hope that they'd come out alright. That was enough for the old man. He wasn't about to just take her from Ben's teachings, he trusted Ben, just as he trusted Leia, Han and Chewie. 

* * *

 

He felt the ripple out from the force. The tiny prickles of a new little one, this one strong. This one little, but fully untrained. Just like another before it, he trailed along the ripple, and smiled as much as he could. It was to easy. It was far to easy to find her, so close to the other. OH he felt her reach out to his prey, and feel him instead. Ever present back into the furthest depths of the boy. Still it was easy to reach for her so very close, but was walled out. A stubborn firey little wretch, he couldn't get that close to that mind. But he would wait. Wait until she wasn't trying even unconsciously to wall him out. It was a game almost, he would wait his turn for her. Sleep after all wouldn't have guards. 


	3. A Few Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey makes a few friends, and has a nightmare.

Ben waited as Rey sat up and glanced at several students filing in now, her eyes wide. "What... what was that?" she asked Ben, he tired to at least smile at her. Rubbing a hand through his hair. 

"That was the force. The actual force, that connects... all living things together." he told her, she flinched as someone got a little to close behind her, leaping up. The student in question, a ten year old human gave a worried sort of look, before taking his place in the chamber waiting for Luke. Ben unfolded himself, and let Rey hold his hand as they exited the room before Luke could enter. The rain had actually let up for the most part now just a minor drizzling but she still marveled at it. "You should have seen me with the first time it snowed." He told her, she looked up to him. "Snow is frozen water from the sky, kinda like ice." Her eyes went wide. "If you stay you'll get to see it... in about six months." 

"I... maybe." she said and shivered a bit. He quickly pulled her into a another section of the temple, this one with more heating. As an added bonus, it held a small flight simulator. Rey looked up at it and then back to Ben. 

"Do you want to be my co-pilot and learn to fly?" he asked, Rey didn't exactly need to be asked twice and ran for the simulator. Ben chuckled, and followed her into the simulator. It was a fairly sort of relaxing sort of thing, getting Rey up to speed with the controls. He set for tie fighter, in the system, the extremely fast little ship would very well show just exactly who was a better pilot in his opinion. Learn on the most complicated, the fastest, and then everything else was a simple cargo run to the moon. It may take awhile, Rey had to nearly climb all over the Consoles in order to access several controls, but she was careful at it. Ben chuckled as he traded seats with her, and she fought to try to control the 'tie' fighter. While not inept, it would take a long time to get used to the needed long turns due to speed. A fully robotic pilot could simply stop the machine, and shoot the ship in the other way, however due to the life support system in the ship such a matter could kill just about any lifeform. 

He barely heard the bell for dinner, Rey had made quiet a bit of progress, fully navigating a new asteroid belt without 'crashing' once. "That was very good! Remember that when using tie fighters they are actually quite small, they can fit into a tighter space." She grinned, beeming at the praise. The mood didn't sour until Tri'scall blocked their path. 

"I called my parents." he said proudly in front of them. A bacta treatment had left him with only mild bruising. Rey looked up at him as Ben tried not to even think of punching the twi'lek in the gut and moving on. "They'll kick YOU out rat." he told Rey. Ben let go of her hand to punch him the gut, doubling the boy over. He quickly grabbed Rey, and with a indignant sort of squeal from her, put her on his shoulders going into the kitchens and eating area. Rey held on to his hair tightly, as he got their trays, and this time even among the whispers, and sudden hush as Tri'scall sputtered and coughed, sat down on a empty table, sitting Rey down beside him. 

"THAT was cool!" Rey told him, he tried not to smile, and blinked as several more people joined him. The other older students, mostly people of 'his' status. Sons and daughters of the new senators, and a lone relative to a Jedi. Ben blinked as they tried to start a sort of conversation. 

"I... well, Tri'scall deserved it." Ben hazarded to Rey giving the group a wary eye. Seeing the opening, one of them spoke. 

"Yes, he did! Hey... Ummm... can we eat with you?" she asked, a frail looking togruta female with red skin, and black markings all over her. Ben nodded, it was odd really, no one ever asked. "That's good... uhhh... so, I'm... Maila Ty, you must be Rey?" Rey grinned to the other female nodding furiously and trying to swallow down a large mouthful. 

"YES!" Rey stood up on the chair. "I'm REY!" Ben chuckled, and the rest actually laughed. 

"Well, you're a bit famous for putting Tri'scall on his butt." said a triannii male, though not as big as Ben or Tri'scall, he sported light grey fur all over his body, and long whiskers. His ears twitched rotating freely as some noises caught his notice. Rey practically vibrated in pure happiness it took all of her control to avoid squealing in delight as she sat back down eating her food with much more gusto. The rest quickly introduced themselves, the six, mostly human say for the other two, were Udo Holst the son of a senator. Genryl Cah the other lone 'prince' though his family had slaughtered every other claim to the throne of his home world. Vosh Ghrna, the last son of a well known crime lord who was disavowed by his father and Owen Bele, the only child of a now dead senator who defected to the fast growing First order. "Ah, yes, call me Seebk little Rey." he added after a beat of silence after the others introduced themselves. 

"What are you all doing here?" Ben asked them, they shared a look between them. 

"We... well..." Maila tried frowning. 

"We all want to train with you." Vosh told him simply. He was elbowed by Maila and he gave her a truly affronted look. "I am only telling the truth!" 

"You could be diplomatic!" She scolded he scoffed to her. 

"My father always said words were for when you are holding all the blasters." he replied and Maila made a quite human gesture of flapping her hand as he spoke as if he always said this, he probably did. Ben didn't much associate with others, they seemed to be either wary or out right scared of him. 

"Why?" Ben asked, and dipped a small roll into a soup, Rey watched him and quickly copied him. 

"Because...." Seebk said and bowed his head towards Luke who was talking to a set of the younger trainees behind the cat like being. "We feel like Luke is holding us back. When he..." he grimaced, teeth pulling back in a snarl. 

"When he gave you a trainee we saw that maybe you would be okay with teaching us too. You are the best." Genryl spoke up his voice monotonous. Ben blinked and felt a short rush of heat to his cheeks. "Does that satisfy you Ben?" he asked and spooned some of the soup into his mouth head and back straight. 

"I'm not sure I can be much help." Ben hazarded, the rest again shared a look, but they still stayed near him. 

"Yes well, better the Luke telling us 'go out and explore a bit' I would guess." Maila told him and shifted. "My grandfather told me to always do your best, and I don't feel like I can with..." she paused looking behind her to confirm Luke was now gone. "Luke." she finished. Ben felt truly astonished, and wondered exactly how Luke would react to this. 

"We need to keep it secret." Vosh said. "I stole some stealth tech from my father before I left, so we can use that." 

Udo grimaced, "MY father would hate I'm going against Luke..." he groaned and shoved the bowl of soup away from him, Rey snatched it from the middle of the table gaining a few looks. Seebk roared into a hissing laugh, which Rey just stared at and started to push it back. "No no no, have it. I wont be able to eat with this stomach." he pushed his food to Rey and she nodded needing no telling twice. 

"I suggest we go to the ruins to the south to train, its an hours walk." Owen spoke up. The rest looked to him. "What? Luke only SAID they were dangerous. I've been there, the only danger is a flooded basement." The rest shuffled a bit closer to him. "If we shore up the place it should be good, get some pumps and such." 

"They'd notice if we grabbed the good ones..." Maila said. Rey stood up on the chair again. 

"I can fix things!" she told them all brightly. They looked to her and then back to Ben. "I CAN! I fixed a speeder up for my mom and dad!" the group shared a smile and leaned closer to her. 

"Do you know how to repair a shield generator?" Vosh asked her. 

"What's wrong with it?" Rey replied confidently. Vosh grinned to her. 

"I like you. You'd make it far in my world." he reached out and ruffled her head a bit. Rey smacked at his hand and sat back down he laughed brightly. 

"We are so doing this." Maila grinned to everyone. Ben ran a hand through his hair thinking of exactly what he could do that they would find...ah. 

"I found out that if you apply the force you can freeze objects in the air." he told them quietly. "Maybe even if you concentrate enough, or use enough force you can freeze blaster fire." they smiled to him nodding furiously. It was new, it was something a bit dangerous, and that was all that was needed. The next conversation quickly ran into less conspiracy. Luke passed by the group, stroking his beard thoughtfully but not lingering. He seemed happy actually Ben was now associating with others if not making friends. Ben ignored him, listening to Rey as she talked eagerly about how to repair a shield generator. 

* * *

The plan was for tomorrow they'd leave in small groups just after morning meditation, or in Ben and Rey's case morning combat practice. Ben tried not to be nervous, he had little thought to the proper sort of training with Rey let alone a group of others. So as she practiced learning to write on her tablet he pulled out a flimsy sheet he could go over various things that they could do. Firstly, that trick he had found out, he wanted more practice. They could use sling shots first with small fabric balls, moving up to full on pellets. Then to maybe more serious matters, after that he paused on what to do. Maybe more serious combat practice? He paused over the flimsy, they did practice combat. However practice with more serious weapons like vibroblades? It was a possibility, so he wrote it down. What else had he discovered on his own, he frowned, wondering if they'd actually even think about it. 

If they could 'read' a person, could they not press into the mind and go through its contents? He paused before writing it down, but did so. He never himself explored the possibility, but now the option presented itself to him. If they were going against the First Order and he did never discount that they would, they would need a way to weed out spies. The Republic bleed information faster then a sieve, Ben could only wonder how his mother could bare it. All it would take was a few minutes alone with each person, and he could find out if their loyalties were to the former empire, or to the rebellion. It was EASY, but no. He knew no one would accept such a matter, invasion of such a privacy was not the way of the rebellion. Even when it served the key purpose of ensuring safety of all those who wanted to remain free. 

"HA!" Rey said proudly and lifted the tablet to show Ben. She had gotten her first sentence down, while it wasn't the best penmanship it was an accomplishment. He grinned to her. 

"That's very good!" he praised, and Rey quickly went back to work completely giddy with the praise and the day's events. It would probably take hours for her to wind down, which was alright with Ben, he still needed to think on just exactly how they could move pass any sort of training Luke provided. It was hard, but there was a sort of tingling in his head. His hand almost of its own accord wrote something down and he blinked down at the flimsy. Vader, the name brought with it a myriad of feelings none of which he cared to be party to, but... Ben's eyes flicked up away. Wasn't it important? Luke was mostly silent on the subject of his father, and Ben's grandfather, talking only about his redemption and his slaying of the Emperor. As such, what little Ben could glean was from the Rebellion files on him, what few tales war survivors would say, and even a lone hologram of Vader taking out a small rebel base. He decided, it was important, one SHOULD know about Vader.

Maybe even the other known lords of the sith as well, Ben thought quickly. To know ones enemy, one had to learn of the enemy, know their tenants, know exactly how they would react. Ben quickly set to writing down the few things he would have to have help in acquiring. Records of the sith were controlled more so then the remaining Jedi artifacts, he didn't doubt Luke would find that more then just objectionable. But then considering the Empire was BUILT on those tenants, that it was ruled by a LORD of the Sith, Ben felt that YES they did need to know. The First Order was born from the ashes of the Empire, it was no small stretch they would hold onto some of if not all the tenants from before. He hoped the others would be alright with knowing about this, he didn't exactly need to ask Rey, she'd follow him the ends of the galaxy if he asked. 

Then, he gave a look to her, she did need to start on proper schooling too, he wondered if the others would be willing to help with that, he wasn't sure Luke cared to even put in teachers on history. Most of the students were ten and older, Rey was the youngest here. Coming from utter ignorance as well compared to the children of merchants, senators, a few princes and princesses, ancestors of Jedi, all of which were far better educated. He wrote that down to, what could he teach her too? Politics gave a sour taste in his mouth but that would be best. He did have a... unique perspective. Rey nodded a bit over the tablet, but shook herself frowning over something as she finally started to fall asleep. 

* * *

Rey wasn't sure if she was asleep or not, the last thing she remembered was frowning over a particularly hard letter to write, it was 'R' she couldn't just her the other leg in the correct position. In the next moment she was cold, and was waking to a certain select knock. She jolted awake, and blinked around in the deep darkness around her. The soft knock came again and she rapped a set of four quick knocks back, and creeping around the two snoring figures around her quickly went out of the small craft. Three people waited for her, all teenagers, she was so small compared to them, and they grinned down at her. "Come on rat." One said affectionately and ruffled her hair. She followed them quickly to a very small crack in a shed. She slipped under, chest pressing down on the hard stone floor before wiggling with some help into the storage shed. Food, FOOD was all around her and she quickly set to pushing just a few under the shed. Wouldn't want to be found out, four, one for her, three for them, and she was out, being pulled out by her friends. 

There was shouting, and lights roared into the area, the four froze, and the memory stalled. Rey knew this was a memory, but for a moment it was like something froze the entire world. Maybe it was a second, or maybe it was minutes as she stood there caught by the teens. In her memory, one kicked her in the stomach, leaving her there to take the fall. Her parents were so angry with her. EVERYONE was angry with her, but the memory changed. Or the dream changed, one of them grabbed her, and quickly threw her into a very rough carry on his shoulder. She was breathless as he ran off into the desert from swearing pursuers. They stopped once the world went silent in the moonless skies of Jakku and her friend set her down carefully. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked. His voice was strange and now how Rey remembered it, but it was like Ben's voice now, and she didn't much care. Cause Ben was there and he saved her from all that scary anger. He grinned down at her, and Rey practically beemed with joy. 

"Damn, now they'll fix the hole." said another boy she didn't much care for. 

"Unkar is unfair! He cheats us ALL out." said a meaningless female voice. 

"We should..." Ben mumbled, dropping off. 

"Kill... him?" Rey questioned. That was the way it was in Jakku, someone made you REALLY REALLY angry you just killed them. Someone annoyed you? Kill them. People made sure to make it a chore to take them down, but it wasn't like even Rey didn't know about death. Ben nodded to her crouching down by her and putting a very strange sort of hand on her shoulder. Rey shifted uneasily, looking down to the ground. 

"That's excellent Rey. Don't you think he deserves it for being so mean?" Ben questioned softly. Rey kicked at the sand not liking this dream anymore. But she didn't exactly know how to stop dreaming. "Right? He _DESERVES_ it. For _HURTING_ you." Rey isn't sure it's Ben anymore, as someone else's voice is layered on specific words, the hand tightens a bit on her shoulder not painful just yet. Its a warning. 

"Yes." she says simply and the hand retreats. She can feel a sense of pride from Ben, and shifts again before him, he's a LOT taller then he really was. She'd say that she didn't even reach his knee anymore as he stared down at her. Plus his clothes changed, and she didn't exactly think Ben was the type to wear soft shoes. 

"Good girl..." crooned a very cold voice, but the tall figure shifted, and seemed at least a bit wary before she was almost tossed unceremoniously into a dream about water, and rocks. A dream about a island, and all her fears were forgotten there, and she didn't need to worry about the weird giant Ben, or not knowing about what she wanted to do to Unkar. She could just be here, and well, she didn't have the word for it just yet. But just be in a nice place. This dream continued until that loud buzz woke her with Ben, again he had set her to bed, and she rubbed her face from staying up so late. Whatever strange dream she had was pushed utterly back with what was going to happen today. She was going to prove she was useful, and that no one needed to send her away. She could be an adult, and that was better then any sort of strange class where you sat down and tried not to sleep. Or be shoved towards a fat stinky creature who deserved to be hurt and hurt badly at that because you just wanted to make that pain go away in your stomach. 

* * *

 Luke was fairly ecstatic, any sort of regrets were forgotten as he updated his sister on Ben's progress in a short text based message. 

_"Some of the other students sat with Ben today and started to talk with him, he seemed wary about them at first. But then they were of all things talking about repairing one of the old shield generators. I think the others focused on that since the newest student I found, Rey, has much more specialized knowledge. She's a bit of a scavenger, I think she must have learned to read from repair manuals rather then anything else. They must be using her as a way to get to know Ben, so while I am hesitant to keep them together I will continue to do so. He is making friends, though Tri'scall appears to have taken affront. His parents are on the way here, I would like for you to come smooth things over, but its not necessary. You should see Ben, he's grown a lot taller since you last visited and while he is still very angry, I think Rey might be more calming. Well truth be told not calming but distracting. I'll need to ask if you still have one of those nanny teaching droids, she is very ignorant on things and needs proper schooling. That much I know to do. Maybe send Han with it? Ben could see one of you, he NEEDS to see you guys. I know you're all busy, but can you take some time for his birthday?"_

Luke frowned a bit as he sent the message, Leia and Han were almost always Busy, but they did try to come by. The visits were always short, but maybe they could think to plan at least a full day towards their son. Luke wasn't about to tell his sister how to raise a child, how could a childless man even suggest ways to raise one? But he knew Ben was lonely, less now that he was making friends, but he should know that his parents are proud of him. Luke was proud of him, but he knew Ben felt that was hollow. If it wasn't how the boy ignored him, then it was evident how Ben avoided him much more now then before. Luke paused, he still didn't exactly know what to do with the boy. Most of the others were fine with exploring the force, Ben wanted to know EVERYTHING. Every little history every nuance even down to what the Jedi usually ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Luke stroked his beard in thought, well, there should be no harm in allowing advanced students time with holocrons, the lone sith one, which was under lock and key in a chest in the basement was out of the question, Luke didn't dare go near it even himself. The ghost within was a bit to much to deal with at the moment and would wait. Everything could always wait, there was no real rush for things. He blinked when morning came he didn't even realize that he had been awake all night. 


	4. A Sort of Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tri'scall's parents arrive, a story about a jedi is told, and a few things are shown for everyone to see.

Ben frowned at Tala. "You do not need a toolkit." Tala told him optics shining a bit to brightly. 

"Has Luke forbidden us from requesting them?" Ben asked in response. Tala shifted, and grabbed a toolkit from behind the counter holding the toolkit down preventing Ben from taking it. 

"I will be reporting this to Master Luke, young master." Tala told him. Ben tried to smile, and nodded. Tala finally let the toolkit go, and Ben grabbed it, slowly. He wanted to snatch it, but handed it to Rey who held it tightly to her chest. "Ah, little one. The toolkit was for you?" Tala questioned. Ben blinked. 

"YES!" She told the droid. The machine shifted a bit. 

"Then this does not need be reported, you should have said it was for her." Tala said simply. Ben blinked at the droid in confusion. 

"Why?" He asked. Tala shifted to him. 

"You must grow into full independence, it is part of my commands from your mother." Tala told him simply, and Ben grimaced ushering Rey out and away from the droid. Well that would explain why the droid wouldn't do much of anything when he was concerned. Including even telling him how to repair his uniforms. However it did anger him that they, the droid or his mother even TOLD him of such a matter. He shook himself and walked to the storage area. It was more of a salvage yard, currently Seebk was putting one of the old water pumps and various other things onto a small hovercart. The group waved at him, and Rey had to run to keep up with the long strides Ben took to get to the others.

"We're waiting for Vosh." Maila told him, grinning. "So, Rey is there anything else you think we might need?" She asked Rey. Rey grinned brightly eyes casting over the area, and her eyes stalled on a shelf of various small devices. She shoved the tool kit into her tunic, and lept over the hovercart, dodging Udo, and started looking over the shelves. The teens laughed at the antics as she went through the shelves, pulling out some small devices. "So... Ben. Do you...Hmm..." Maila began. Ben just stared at her as she tried to talk to him, her cheeks flushed. "Do you have any plans much later?" she asked in a barely comprehensible jumble. 

"No? I usually practice calligraphy." Ben told her. She brightened nodding. 

"My Grandpa taught me calligraphy before he died! Do you make your own pens? I can't ever get mine right!" Ben smiled towards her, and began into a short discussion about carving pens, and just what to use for nibs. From thin metals, to actual feathers. Vosh, carrying a sack and looking fairly upset finally got there grumbling. Rey had collected a few things shoving them into her shirt, with a bit of a chuckle, Udo offered his own carry bag. 

"Gods of Luck and Love I swear that droid will be the death of me." Vosh muttered, and parceled out several small stealth belts. They would use holographic tech to blur them out, he set a larger one onto the hovercart and frowned as he tried to turn it on. It gave a strange electronic fizz, and he groaned again. But turned to Rey, who was now done shoving the various small things into her newly got bag. "Rey come here." Vosh said and she quickly went to the generator. "This is what I was talking about, its not a-" Rey smacked it. With a bit of a chug, it flared to life, setting a large field around the cart making them nigh invisible. 

"Rebellion tech?" Ben asked and Vosh shook his head. 

"My father used this one to shield his home, he got a new one so I grabbed this one when I left." Vosh said. 

"Loose wire." Rey said, and grinned up to Vosh. 

"Ah good then. The Gods of Luck smile upon us, lets get out of here before Luke thinks to look for any of us." The group shuffled out, peering around at everything as they quickly ran away from the training temple. Nothing accosted them, though a few students looked towards them. Luke was nowhere to be seen; and Rey had easily kept up, even when she didn't have a stealth belt herself, but then again they didn't need the individual ones while they had the larger one concealing the group. Vosh talked to Rey about which wire it could be and whether it needed to be replaced. Him and Maila walked near each other, and he flushed a bit as she shifted her tunic exposing a thin shoulder. 

"So your grandfather..." Ben wondered aloud, she brightened towards him. 

"My grandfather is Codi Ty. He was banned from the Jedi order." She told him smiling. "He was banished for seeking to destroy Grievous, though he didn't do the job, Obi Wan did so, and no one raised a fuss over THAT." She scoffed a bit, rolling her eyes and grinning to Ben. He felt fairly uneasy however. "What? Did you think the Jedi were all good?" she teased. He shook his head. 

"Well my father was a crime lord, just like my grandfather." Vosh told them proudly. 

"As if that is better then mine." Owen said and grimaced. "At least you don't have to prove your loyalties every other week." 

"Or you family decided it was best to commit genocide." Genryl said his walk was smooth. Rey silently listened to everyone. 

"I'm the most normal aren't I?" Udo whined, Seebk put a furry arm around Udo. 

"Other then me." He sniffed the air ears swiveling around to something. 

"Well, Ben is normal." Maila said, Ben tried not to snort. 

"Am I normal?" Rey pipped up, they paused, the ruins were just coming to view now. "My... parents were..." Rey paused. 

"Empire soldiers." Ben supplied. They actually seemed far more interested at that knowledge. 

"That is actually awesome!" Vosh told her. "Which planet?" he asked. 

"Jakku?" 

"Ah, my father buys salvage there." Seebk said. Rey brightened, Seebk grinned to her. "He is a weapons merchant, better to have half built then build it all the way from scratch." Rey brightened at that, clearly enjoying they actually knew about her home world. Whatever horrors experienced were furthest back from her mind compared to being treated just like the other teens. 

"Here." Owen, stopped at the old rotten wood doors and frowned. He concentrated reaching for the force and splintered them apart, Rey flinched, then clapped her hands together excitedly. 

"Can I do that?" she asked Owen. He blinked to her. 

"Sure, I can help you learn, I just... punched it basically." he rubbed the back of his head as the group filed in with the generator and hovercart. They marveled in the semi dark of the old temple, full of sharp almost cutting like angels. It was square, compared to the dome, and circular like Jedi structures that dotted the entire planet. It was also the oldest ruins on the entire planet, which must say something, but no there could say what. 

Rey helped them set up lights, patching up a small fraying wire with heat shrink that came in the toolkit. They shut off the shield generator, and the teens set to setting up the area for their secret training as Rey cracked it upon and searched for the loose wire or anything else that could be wrong with it. Mats went down for them rolling, the structure itself was sound. Far more sound then the crumbling jedi ruins in fact. Curious, the teens left Rey to peek into the flooded basement and the still water there. 

With no sound of running water the brackish still pool looked long undisturbed, though, from the footprints there were others here other then Owen. Ben frowned extending his senses down the depths, feeling they were far more expansive then the temple proper. "Pumps can wait till we make the place habitable." Genryl told them all. 

"Well, I brought food, I'm starting to get hungry." Maila told them, Rey grinned over the now in working order shield generator. Vosh was quick to praise her, and sat with her to eat. The second youngest of them at fourteen he was probably the one who could relate to Rey the most. Crime Lords weren't known for their utter love and care for their children. One of the reasons Vosh was still alive was because he was training to be a Jedi, likely his father was planning on trying to bring him back into the fold sooner or later despite the falling out. 

"Well, I think I should tell the tale of my grandfather." Maila said proudly. 

"You ALWAYS talk about your grandfather." Vosh retorted quickly. She looked affronted as possible, Ben could barely work himself up to try to ask her about the former Jedi. 

"I want to hear it!" Rey said brightly. Seebk hissed in pleasure at that. 

"See? Don't be so against it Vosh." Seebk told him. "Rey certainly could use the history lesson, can't you little cub?" He fondly rubbed a hand over her head. Rey accepted the gesture finally with a grin back at him, trying to show as many teeth as the cat like being. Maila smiled as Vosh pouted lightly, but not upset at all. Ben was far more glad of Rey wanting to hear about it. He enjoyed hearing the woman talk, and he stared at her as she settled into a cross legged position to start the story. 

* * *

 

Codi Ty was a jedi padawon, he was dear friends with B'dard Tone, who took his padawan with him to retake a planet that had become part of the separatists. Tone was severely injured and his padawon was killed by a Grievous. Tone half his face gone, equipped with new prosthetic arm, took Ty as his new padawon who shared sympathies and thoughts with his master. Flynn Kybo, another who lost his master to Grievous tried to ask the Jedi Council t go after him in full instead of allowing the horrible creature to do as it wished. But Yoda himself came down against the action, and the others refused. It was against the Jedi "code" to hunt down even true monsters like Grievous after all. No matter how many people, how many sentient races, and clones it would save. 

They tried to calm him but it would not work and soon the two others when to Flynn, to talk over how to how to go about destroying the monster that was Grievous once and for all. Soon word spread over the worlds in hushed tones, and others came to the cause. For it was a good cause was it not? No one but the Jedi didn't see the merit in ending Grievous. With almost four jedi, even untrained, it was more then enough to take on the monster. With the help of miners who Grievous had harmed as well they set out against the monster. 

Tone warned that their actions would mean excommunication, but none cared, their faith remained resolute. Grievous needed to die, this was against the Jedi code which proclaimed all things should live. Or be treated to a fair trial, what fairness of trail could be made to a monster however? None. But as they went to finally do the deed, there were children, all young padawans held captive by the monster. It was deemed they were more important then Grievous and so they went to save them. A young jedi Allara desperate to try to die fighting begged the monster for a saber, and the monster was amused enough to grant one. This was a mistake, the Jedi fought against droids, and fought against Grievous though not able to kill the monster, they were able to save all the children. Bringing them back to the jedi, and the council. Ty offered no explanation, no want for anything for himself and only asked them to take on one of the padawons, one who might be considered unsuitable as Anikin. 

The Jedi could not forget the slight against the order and its tenants, though Allara begged, this slight could not be forgotton. So Codi Ty was banished from the order, with no regrets for his actions. After all he had done much, Allara, a strong jedi would be dead would she not? Would not all those padawans saved be dead if not for the others and their actions? Yoda would not hear of this lack of regret, for the jedi order did not allow for living without regret for such actions. This is how Codi Ty banished. He found a mate, a truly elegant togurta, and had a great family. He even met Vader, seeking out the Jedi, however Vader himself did not kill Ty, perhaps seeing a kindred spirit letting the former padawan live. Maila Ty, the only other among her family other then her grandfather who could sense and use the force, was sent to Luke for training not long after her grandfather died to continue her own training. 

* * *

 Ben was rapt, Vosh had long since tired of the story, carving a small block of wood into some lumpy shape, Rey darted from that to Maila blinking more blearily. The rest just sat through the story, having likely heard it before. Ben didn't much care for their less then enthusiastic responses, he got to listen to the woman, and she blushed rubbing a thin fingered hand over her cheek as he stared at her. "That's about it..." she said softly and giggled lightly blinking at him. Ben felt his cheeks redden and looked down and away to anything else. He noticed now the sun was starting to set and the small meal they had while Maila told her story had long since thinned. 

"We should be getting back. I would like to eat dinner if you are finished my lady?" Genryl said, Rey's stomach audible enough for every set the teens to laughing with Rey following suit afterwards. Seebk, pulled Rey to his shoulder so they could run back in a portion of the time, as well as have the excuse of just doing some cardio work rather then sneaking out to do secret training. Luke gave them a glance as they gathered a fairly sizable dinner for each of them but nothing else happened that night, until the group parted. The teens all going to their separate huts, Ben carrying a sleeping Rey who still grasped a roll in her hand. Maila blinked at him again, and touched his arm with a smile. 

"Maybe next time." she told him, a strange promise in her eyes. Ben flushed, and tried not to pull his hair out once he set Rey to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a good day, and no dark strange dreams disturbed his rest, no tingle in the back of his head pushed him to seeking some form of peaceful activity to ease some mental stress. It wasn't until Luke woke him before his alarm that any mood was ruined. 

* * *

 

Tri'scall's parents waited for Luke to gather the offending parties to their son, who sat proudly by them in the predawn hours. Tri'scall's father, the king of a small moon much like Alderaan, was dressed in fine real silks as Luke pulled Ben and Rey to the room. The place was silent say for the breathing of the group. Rey rubbed her face blinking at the two well dressed people. The twi'leks mother was fretting a bit over her son, as Rey grimaced before the king. "This is the girl?" he asked Luke looking from Rey to his son. Luke looked down raising hands to try to explain such matters as Rey's attack. "Was she not punished for the attack?" He questioned. Ben stilled, and glared at the king. The man didn't seem to take notice of the quickly growing tense air. 

"She is just a child, she was a slave." Luke tried to mollify. The king scoffed, as she stared at the ground. 

"That does not change anything, LUKE." the king snapped. Rey gave a deflated sigh, and walked up to a wall, quietly stripping off her tunic top. They watched her, Tri'scall's mother looked away from her son her eyes going wide as all lingered on the still healing scars on Rey's back. There were three evident sessions from having an electro whip seared into her back. The forbidden weapon of torture, for that is what it was, needed only one strike to due its toll. Three large hook scars from the main body of the whip, and a burst outwards from those from the electrical burns. What little air left vanished as the queen stuffed a hand into her mouth with a squeak. She abandoned her son so quickly it nearly bowled over the princling. 

His mother didn't speak standard, instead babbling in the twi'leks native language to a mostly confused Rey. She gathered the little girl in her arms, casting a look to her husband and then to her son. _'you all dare to harm this child I will end the both of you'_ she snapped. Ben was far to confused as well, fully expecting to take the fall for Rey's actions. Luke sighed in relief, Tri'scall huffed in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. Rey fought against the woman's hold, pushing herself as far away from the hold as possible. 

"I suppose the slight should be overlooked." The king said to Luke. Tri'scall bolted up looking quite affronted. 

"She HIT me! She broke my nose!" he yelled. His father looked to him and the teen was silenced as the king looked thoughtful. 

"She is a CHILD. My suggestion as punishment would be a day without food." The king said simply. Tri'scall tried to look completely affronted at his fathers lack of sympathy, and his mothers slight betrayal. She was trying to kiss Rey at the moment and Rey froze at the suggestion of going without food for a day, the king stalled and actually bent over towards his wife and Rey. "Who sold you? Slavery is forbidden." 

"My...." she choked and due to the slacking hold of the queen, pushed herself out and ran to Ben, hiding behind him and nearly putting her whole head under his tunic. The tense sort of air returned, Luke gave a long sigh. 

"Her parents." he told them softly. The two royals perked up. 

"THEY DID NOT! THEY ARE GOING TO COME BACK!" Rey nearly screamed muffled by Ben's back. Ben turned and scooped her up. 

"Come on, I think we're done here." Ben told her. 

"NO! You still have-" Tri'scall began, but we cut off as his mother cuffed him. Ben ignored the rising voice of the twi'lek's mother quickly scolding his son to take Rey away before she could have a full scale panic attack. She was shaking, and probably trying not to go into pure hysterics. 

"THEY, they said they'd come back! I NEED to go back!" she sobbed as Ben set her down. Vosh, was actually passing by, and gave a look around as Ben tried to find a way to keep Rey calm. "If I don't go back... I won't ever see them again!" 

"Is that a bad thing?" Vosh asked. Rey blinked towards him shocked. "Is it a bad thing to never see your family again?" she opened and closed her mouth over and over again. "Do... you know their names?" 

"Nnnnnoooo...." she put her hands to her face and Ben glared to Vosh as she started to sob into them. Vosh returned the glare. 

"I can try to find them." He said simply. Rey stilled and looked up to Vosh breath hitching. 

"WHY?" Ben demanded. Vosh shrugged. 

"Because quite frankly I'd like to send them a little present." Ben blinked as a tiny bit of darkness encircled the younger teen. Rey gave him frail smile, as he crouched down by her. "You remind me of my little siblings." he told her, and looked up towards Ben. "Here." he pulled out a small fairly decorative knife with sheath and all. "Would you like to send your parents a little gift?" he asked Rey. She nodded slowly, and Ben put a warning hand on Vosh's shoulder. 

"You can't possibly, even THINK to do... such a _NICE_ thing." Ben paused as he looked towards Rey. 

"Can we send them food? Some of the fruit?" she asked them. Vosh smiled and handed the small knife to her. "What... what is this?" 

"Its a _nice_ little message to Tri'scall should he think to try to antagonize you again. Just give him the knife okay?" Vosh told her, Rey grinned nodding. Ben shifted. 

"I would..." Ben began and swallowed. 

"I know Ben. All of us would. It feels like we ALL failed in a way." Vosh told him. "My father doesn't allow slavery, Seebk's father pays his workers well as can be expected. It just seems like... the only way to fix things it to take the future into our own hands." Rey gave him a confused look not exactly understanding what they two teens were saying.

"Thanks." Ben told Vosh and he grinned. The young teen showing at least one chipped tooth. He wasn't thin, shorter but thicker in body with dark brown hair and eyes. "You are right, the future it is in our hands. The least we can do is help all that we can." Vosh nodded. 

"If my father is any indication, with his current attempts to patch things up, we could do that _NICE_ thing. I think some food is in order." He gave Ben a smug sort of smile as Rey beamed a bit wiping snot on her sleeve. 

* * *

 

They didn't have time to avoid Luke that day, he gathered them all up to unveil a newly built portion of the temple grounds, Maila eblowed Ben in the side as Luke wound up everyone with a speech about the very old days of the Jedi. "What should we call ourselves?" she asked Ben. 

"What?" he asked her. She giggled, and again Ben flushed. 

"All groups need a name." she replied. 

"We could call ourselves knights?" Udo asked, and shifted uneasily. 

"Knights of what?" Owen mumbled. "Can't just call ourselves 'the knights' it's so stupid." Rey pressed her lips together. Ben was busy trying not to fall into a train of panic, were all his dreams premonitions? Luke said Jedi could see into the future, Luke had little aptitude for the gift leaving Ben completely off guard for the discussion. 

"We could name ourselves after one of he old Jedi." Genryl told them calmly.

"That's an excellent idea, I could ask my grandfather for some names!" Maila said brightly. Seebk hissed in slight displeasure. 

"Well there's Obi Wan, I know that one. But Considering things Knights of Ben? That would be a bit strange." He almost smiled towards Ben. Ben shifted in his seat to his name sake being brought up. Luke seemed to frown at the group of teens for not exactly being subtule about not listening, they quieted and turned to the Jedi Master as he unveiled a set of four pillars. Four holocrons lit up before the class making the teens take full notice. The old jedi masters, probably more then centuries old, bowed before the group of over twenty students. 

"Everyone will have access to ask questions of this old holocrons." Luke told the crowd who were numbering excitedly. Ben stared at the blue holograms in shock that Luke would allow unfettered access to the old devices. Like many things the knowledge of how to make one was lost, perhaps even before the empires purges. The four were all human, and bowed before shutting themselves off to the excited whispers of the group. "Now, I'd like to talk to SOME of you alone. I think you know who you are." The teens froze still, as the rest of the kids filed out and away with a few sniggers. Rey stayed, looking to Ben for what to do. Luke approached the group carefully. 

"Ben," Luke began, and frowned. "I... talked to... well," Luke rubbed the back of his head and Ben frowned. 

"They aren't coming?" Ben hazarded a guess and Luke sighed in defeat. 

"There is a problem in the neutral zone." Luke said quietly. Ben stood, and the rest quickly followed suit. "If you like, they have time for a holochat." Luke said to Ben's back. 

"Not needed." Ben told him with his teeth grit together. Rey held onto his hem as they left the room, leaving Luke mostly speechless. 

"Well... that is interesting. I did not know he had holocrons." Seebk said and frowned in distaste. "But I do have an idea of the name." The teens turned to him. "The Knights of Reven." he said simply and grinned to them. Most of them gave him a confused look, Ben had only heard of the name and its connections to the Jedi. "You all do not know of Reven?" he asked. 

"NO! Who is Reven?" Rey asked. "is he famous?" 

"Not anymore. Back when the sith were a major power Reven was a lord of the sith, he died, and was reborn into the body of a young force sensitive." Seebk told her, and to an extent everyone else. "However Reven could not be evil anymore, and redeemed himself and molded himself into a Jedi." 

"That's a stupidly simple story." Maila snapped. 

"At least he kept it to all the important bits." Vosh bit towards her. She huffed at Vosh as the teen laughed at her. 

"Knights of Reven, those that know of Reven and his story would be suspicious." Genyrl said. Rey smiled. 

"Knights of Ren?" she asked them, Ben froze as if he had been punched in the gut. "Its like my name!" she told them all, though cast a glance to Ben. 

"Sounds good to me!" Vosh said making Rey beam at him.  

"Ben? Are you alright?" Maila asked, Ben shook himself and gave a half smile to the woman. 

"Yes of course, it is a good name. Sounds a bit ominous to me." He said, and was glad to see his voice didn't waver. 

"Yeah... For kriff's sake, I'm going to need meds for this stomach." Udo put a hand to his stomach grimacing. Ben paused and tried to think of a way to segway away from this discussion which was quickly going to make him need to take medication for his own stomach. 

"Can... can you all help Rey?" he questioned. 

"Help me with what?" she demanded a bit crossly gaining a bit of a chuckle from the group. 

"Just school work." Ben told her. She gave him a confused look. "Like how you are learning how to write in the old way." she nodded. 

"Of course we can!" Maila said brightly. "I know so much about the rise of the empire!" Ben wanted to say he did to, but he didn't want to contradict her. The rest began laying out schooling that they could cover towards Rey, planning on taking turns in rest periods as they practiced in that temple. They'd have to put in some food containers there, and maybe even sleeping cots. A small medical station even as they would make the temple their get away. Holocrons mostly forgotten about they set out, giving a careful look to make sure Luke was busy enough so they could 'requisition' such supplies without comment. Seebk had a great aptitude for numbers, and Vosh could cover geography, it seemed like it was the young teens true passion. Udo, could fully cover what Ben was more then loathe to do, galactic politics, Maila and him could go over history. Owen was in the position of being the odd person out, however he did know several alien languages. Genryl cast a glance to Ben before offering to teach her manners, and Rey's response, swearing at him, seemed to actually break the calmness the second oldest had making him smile. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did you think I'd be setting Rey and Ben up so early? Rey's a kid, a LITTLE kid. Ben's not going to see her that way at ALL for a LONG time. There's going to be a time skip in the next chapter. How does Seebk know of Reven? Well that will be revealed later. *wink*


End file.
